Paramount movies come to Xbox Live

18-02-2008

by Emmet Ryan

Movie studio Paramount Pictures is making its catalogue of movies on Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace Video Store available to European users of the service.

The move continues a trend of major movie studios experimenting with download based delivery of films. The Paramount deal means that all Xbox 360 owners connected to Xbox Live in Ireland, the UK, France and Germany can download-to-rent high definition and standard definition Paramount movies such as Transformers and A Mighty Heart.

The new titles, which also include the Naked Gun trilogy, we be available from Tuesday and rental prices start at EUR3 for a standard definition move and EUR4.50 for a high definition film.

"We are really happy to be able to welcome Paramount to Xbox LIVE Marketplace in Europe. This announcement gives our Video Store customers in the UK, Ireland, France and Germany an even greater choice of entertainment with a great level of HD movie quality," said Robin Truchy, director of Xbox Liver Europe, Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division.

Paramount's move will soon be followed by Warner Bros which plans on increasing the number of films it has made available of the service, with titles such as Beowulf and Nancy Drew being added to Xbox Live this spring.

All of which should send a ripple of doubt through to the celebrating hordes over at Sony who no doubt are still partying in the wake of the apparent triumph of Blu-ray over HD DVD; ENN reported on Friday that Toshiba is reportedly planning on dropping HD DVD. However, the growth of download formats, such as Xbox Live's service, presents a third way to access high definition movies and could well result in Blu-ray's victory being for nought in the long run.